the arm7tdmi hardware architecture

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Embedded System:ARM7TDMI

The ARM7TDMI Hardware Architecture

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ARM7TDMI

• ARM7TDMI is a core processor module embedded in many ARM7 microprocessors, such as ARM720T, ARM710T, ARM740T, and Samsung’s KS32C50100. It is the most complex processor core module in ARM7 series.– T: capable of executing Thumb instruction set– D: Featuring with IEEE Std. 1149.1 JTAG boundary-scan

debugging interface.– M: Featuring with a Multiplier-And-Accumulate (MAC) unit

for DSP applications.– I: Featuring with the support of embedded In-Circuit

Emulator.

• Three Pipe Stages: Instruction fetch, decode, and Execution.

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Features

• A 32-bit RSIC processor core capable of executing 16-bit instructions (Von Neumann Architecture)– High density code

• The Thumb’s set’s 16-bit instruction length allows it to approach about 65% of standard ARM code size while retaining ARM 32-bit processor performance.

– Smaller die size

• About 72,000 transistors

• Occupying only about 4.8mm2 in a 0.6um semiconductor technology.

– Lower power consumption

• dissipate about 2mW/MHZ with 0.6um technology.

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Features Cont!

• Memory Access– Data cab be

• 8-bit (bytes)

• 16-bit (half words)

• 32-bit (words)

• Memory Interface– Can interface to SRAM, ROM, DRAM

– Has four basic types of memory cycle

• idle cycle

• nonsequential cycle

• sequential cycle

• coprocessor register cycle

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ARM7TDMI Block Diagram

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ARM7TDMI Core Diagram

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Memory Interface

• 32-bit address bus

• 32-bit data bus– D[31:0]: Bidirectional data bus

– DIN[31:0]: Unidirectional input bus

– DOUT[31:0]: Unidirectional output bus

• Control signals– Specified the size of the data to be transferred and the

direction of the transfer

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Cycle Types (1)

• Non-sequential cycle– Requests a transfer to or from an address which is unrelated

to the address used in the preceding cycle.

• Sequential cycle– Requests a transfer to or from an address which is either the

same as the address in the preceding cycle, or is one word or halfword after the preceding cycle. But should not occur at the page end.

• Internal cycle– Does not require a transfer.

• Coprocessor register transfer– Wishes to use the data bus to communicate with a coprocessor,

but does not require any action by the memory system.

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Cycle Types (2)

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Cycle Types (3)

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Merge I and S Cycles

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Bus Configuration

• Pipelined– Interface to DRAM

– Set APE to 1

• De-pipelined– Interface to SRAM or ROM

– Set APE to 0

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Pipelined Addresses

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De-pipelined Addresses

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Summary of Bus Operation

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Interface to 16-bit Wide Bus

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Interface to 8-bit Wide Bus

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Coprocessor Interface

• Can have 16 coprocessors

• If the designated coprocessor – exists, a coprocessor instruction will be executed by the

coprocessor;

– does not exist, the ARM7TDMI will take the undefined instruction trap and a software will be executed to emulate the coprocessor. The execution of a coprocessor instruction is done by software.

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Debug Interface

• Based on IEEE Std. 1149.1-1990, “Standard Test Access Port and Boundary-Scan Architecture”.

• Debug systems

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The Concept of Boundary Scan Design

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Test Data Registers

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Boundary Scan Registers

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An Example of Boundary Scan Cell Design

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ARM7TDMI Debug Architecture

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Enter Debugging State

• ARM7TDMI is forced into debug state after a breakpoint, watchpoint, or debug request has occurred.– Breakpoint: Set for a particular instruction. When this

instruction is executed, the machine is forced into debug state.

– Watchpoint: Set for a data access. When data access occurs for a particular address for a particular data, the machine is forced into debug state.

• Setting the breakpoint and watchpoint by– issuing debug request, DBGRQ.

– ICEBreaker programming

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Action In Debug State

• Once enter into debug state– The internal states of the machine can be examined.

– The system’s external state can be examined.

– The memory bus of the machine (ARM7TDMI) is forced to indicate internal cycles and the machine’s outputs will change asynchronously to the memory system.

– Then, the internal state of the machine can be scanned out through scan chain for examination.

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ARM7TDMI ICEBreaker

• It is programmed through TAP controller.

• It consists of two real-time watchpoint units with a control and status register.– Each watchpoint unit can be configured to be a watchpoint or

a breakpoint.

• Execution of ARM7TDMI is halted when – a match occurs between the values programmed into

ICEBreaker and the values currently appearing on the address bus, data bus and various control signals.

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Watchpoint Registers

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ICEBreaker Block Diagram

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ARM720T

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AMBA

• AMBA: Advanced Microcontroller Bus Architecture– It is a specification for an on-chip bus, to enable macrocells

(such as a CPU, DSP, Peripherals, and memory controllers) to be connected together to form a microcontroller or complex peripheral chip.

– It defines

• A high-speed, high-bandwidth bus, the Advances System Bus (ASB).

• A simple, low-power peripheral bus, the Advanced Peripheral Bus (ASP).

• Access for an external tester to permit modular testing and fast test of cache RAM

• Essential housing keeping operations (reset/power-up, …)

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A Typical AMBA-based Microcontroller

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ARM9 Processor Core

the arm7tdmi hardware architecture

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